Publications:

Sandia National Laboratories has developed a latching switch for optical fibers. One or more fibers are moved by an actuator between two positions, off and on. In the off position, two fiber ends are not aligned and light does not pass from the first fiber to the second. In the on position, the ends of two fibers are precisely aligned to make a low-loss optical connection.

Description

The fibers are robustly held in place by mechanical latches in both positions to prevent them from unintentional movement due to shock and vibration. Power is not required to hold the fibers in either position. The power required to switch between on and off is low due to the micro-fabrication techniques used to create the linear actuator that aligns the fibers and the latching mechanism. Micro-fabrication also results in a small switch that will have many commercial and defense applications.

Benefits

Smaller Scale

Reduced Cost

Withstands severe mechanical environments

Can be fabricated using a variety of techniques, including DRIE, LIGA or other bulk micromachining

Latching micro optical switchAn optical switch reliably maintains its on or off state even when subjected to environments where the switch is bumped or otherwise moved. In addition, the optical switch maintains its on or off state indefinitely without requiring external power. External power is used only to transition the switch from one state to the other. The optical switch is configured with a fixed optical fiber and a movable optical fiber. The movable optical fiber is guided by various actuators in conjunction with a latching mechanism that configure the switch in one position that corresponds to the on state and in another position that corresponds to the off state.